My Picky Eater

As karma would have it, our daughter is officially a certified picky eater.  Among my many idiotic pre-parenthood statements, I remember Ivan and I proudly announcing that “we would never become short-order cooks, since our kids would eat whatever we made for dinner or else”.  In some ways, I still hold on the illusion that when our kids are older we might all eat the same meal…but for now Rya has the luxury of two personal chefs on-call 24-7.  Don’t get me wrong, we’re not the type to chase her around with a spoon or even use airplane noises to encourage bites (probably because she’s such a mature two-year old that she would look at us like we were crazy and then spit the food on the floor).  But we have certainly have to make significant efforts to get her to eat even a small variety of reasonably acceptable foods.  When she was a baby, Rya generally ate most things we fed her, but never really seemed to ‘enjoy’ food the way her sister does (like ‘mmmming’ at the sight or taste of anything and everything!).  Rya’s appetite as a toddler has evolved into a hit or miss interest in a few select items, that she eats some days and has no interest in other days.  On a good day, Rya might eat a oatmeal for breakfast, plain pasta for lunch, pizza for dinner…and maybe some raisins and cheese in between.  Since around the time she turned two, she has refused to eat just about any type of fruit or vegetable.  I honestly wonder sometimes how she doesn’t get scurvy from her lack of vitamins!  She’s always been on the lower end of the growth charts, but she’s also always been a very active energetic little girl, so her little body seems to find a way to stay healthy somehow.  We try not to give her much junkfood, aside from the chips and ice cream bars my dad brings everytime he visits (trust me, if that sounds like over-indulgence, it’s actually a compromise since he once took her to the convenience store with a $50 bill and literally let her choose whatever she wanted…and another time gave her a sip of his coffee and didn’t understand what was wrong with that!). 

I recently went to a Picky Eating course for parents and was very underwhelmed by the lack of practical suggestions.  I had to stop myself from laughing when the instructor suggested that the only reason kids like dessert is because adults make a big deal of it…and that if we were to make a big deal of broccoli, they would love that just as much – seriously?!?  Our only source of hope and inspiration have been other parents of picky eaters who validate that it is not easy to feed certain children, and that they still end up turning out okay (aside from often never growing out of their pickiness!).  The funniest comment I’ve heard was one dad joking that he would be happy if his daughter would just eat a half a sandwich every other day. 

Since I’ve come to the realization that there are no magic answers for picky eaters, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and just work on some small creative ideas that might squeeze a few more nutrients and calories into Rya now and then.  So far my successful attempts have included:

·      Buying a juicer and letting Rya help me put fruit into it and drink what she created

·      Using a breadmaker to sneak flax seeds into Rya’s ‘tea and toast’ (I give her milk with a couple drops of coffeemate creamer to dip her toast in and she feels very grown up!)

·      Baking mini carrot muffins with Rya, in which I hid applesauce, wheat germ, and poppy seeds – which she luckily thinks are sprinkles!

·      Hiding pureed sweet potato in Rya’s pancakes (this one I got from Jessica Seinfeld’s ingenious book ‘Deceptively Delicious’)

Fingers crossed, if Rya even continues to eat 20% of my healthy creations I will try to be happy with those small successes!